48. Anthology of Contemporary East German Poetry: A New Project

Before returning to the GDR in May 1978, I conferred with the editors of FIELD, a poetry journal published by Oberlin College, about the possibility of preparing a special bilingual issue devoted to East German poetry of the 1970s. The editors were enthusiastic about my idea, and we agreed that I would serve as guest editor of this publication. The main purpose of the bilingual volume was to make contemporary East German poetry available not only to students of German literature and the GDR, but to a much broader audience of readers as well.

As guest editor, my first tasks were to choose the poets for this anthology and gather from them a selection of poems which would be translated into English following my return to Oberlin. In choosing the fourteen poets who ultimately were included, I consulted with GDR poet Adolf Endler, Gerhard Wolf, and several other persons conversant with the GDR poetry scene, all of them knowledgeable insiders. Our goal was to make the chapbook representative of the very best that East Germany had to offer during the seventies, and a consensus on the most important GDR poets of that era emerged with surprising ease. The list included Erich Arendt, Thomas Brasch, Volker Braun, Heinz Czechowski, Adolf Endler, Elke Erb, Bernd Jentzsch, Rainer Kirsch, Sarah Kirsch, Wulf Kirsten, Günter Kunert, Reiner Kunze, Kito Lorenc, and Karl Mickel.

Fourteen different persons—poets, faculty members, and students shared the task of translating the poems into English. I wrote an introduction to the chapbook, prepared a bio-bibliographical sketch for each poet, and also translated some of the poems, including Elke Erb’s “Sommerzeit” (“Summertime,”1975), one of my favorites.

I see my father stepping through thick, high grass,the delicate panicles swaying ever so gently,and this is true: he seemed to float leglesstoward an oak tree, so thick that three mencould not stretch their six arms around it.Up to the treetop it stood overgrownby dark ivy, a dark pyramid,a hollow ivy-mountain around a tree.And in the rustling creepers of its permanencehung dirt, blown there by the wind; in itfern sprouted and seeds germinated; wasps werebuilding . . .The light through the leaves madethe unassuming aphids glow green;ants, wandering, ate tiny droplets of honeydewfrom their backs. My dear father stoodbefore it all then and took samples.

Contemporary East German Poetry,A Special Issue of FIELD, was published in the fall of 1980. The initial printing of 1,500 copies sold out within a few years.